Supreme Court: No exception made in granting bail to Kejriwal

The Supreme Court on Thursday (May 16) asserted that it has not made any exception for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in granting him interim bail to campaign for the Lok Sabha polls and said any “critical analysis of the judgment is welcome".

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta made the statement while turning down claims and counters of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Kejriwal's lawyer on statements made related to the interim bail to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor.

"We have not made any exception for anybody, we said in our order what we felt was justified," the top court said.

Appearing for the ED, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta objected to Kejriwal's speeches in poll rallies that if people voted for AAP, he would not have to go back to prison on June 2.

"It is his assumption, we cannot say anything," the bench told Mehta.

A statement made by a senior Union minister, who was not named during the proceedings, was pointed out by advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who was appearing for Kejriwal.

The top court was hearing Kejriwal's main plea against his arrest.

On May 10, the apex court granted interim bail to Kejriwal in a money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

The court has asked him to surrender on June 2.

The Delhi chief minister was arrested on March 21.

(With inputs from agencies)